lesson 1.7

Hallo

In lesson 1.7 “Ich muss zum hotel. ”Why does it take a dative case as in zu and dem.? Or have I got this completely mixed up. 

Is das Hotel an indirect object then. I thought it would be a direct object. 

Talk about getting in a twist about this

thanks

Sebongela

Hallo Sebongela,

The preposition zu is always followed by the dative case, hence das Hotel becomes dem Hotel which is then shortened to zum. When you have a dative preposition such as “zu”, “bei”, “aus”, etc., you don't really need to worry about finding an indirect object as such as it is clear from the preposition that the follwing word takes the dative case. 

What you have learnt about direct and indirect objects gets more important when there is no preposition that gives the case away, for example “Die Frau gibt dem Mann (indirect object) einen Kuss (direct object).” - “The woman gives the man a kiss.”

Tschüss!

Julia

Hi again Julia 

Same lesson 1.7

Wie Kommel ich zum restaurant?

Does the verb komme then also follow dative?

Thanks 

Sebongela

Hallo nochmal!

This is pretty much the same as your first example. Restaurant takes the dative as it follows the preoposition zu. The verb kommen doesn't indicate that there is a dative object in the sentence but there are many verbs, so called dative verbs, which require the dative case such as “glauben” - “to believe” or “helfen” - “to help”, for example:

“Ich glaube der Frau.” - “I believe the woman."

“Kannst du dem Mann helfen?” - “Can you help the man?”

Kommen is often followed by the preposition aus (dative preposition) which indicates the dative case, for example:

"Sie kommt aus den USA." - “She comes from the USA.”

Hope this helps!

Julia